Nature Crafts for Aussie Kids

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and for adults too

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s d i K e i s s u for A

Includes which native plants to use and grow

Kate Hubmayer

Contents Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Plants

Collecting Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Create Your Own Nature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Eucalypts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Gungurru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

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Crafts

Red Cap Gum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Coral Gum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Aliens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Red Flowering Gum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Leaf Hammering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Wing-fruited Mallee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Insects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Large-fruited Mallee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Native Animals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Mottlecah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Gumnut People. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Bushy Yate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Seedpod Birds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Quandong. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Wattle Crown and Bracelet. . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Banksia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Bookmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Hakea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Weavings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Sheoak. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Mandalas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Cypress Pine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Rope Making. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Wattle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Seedpod Jewellery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Bottlebrush. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Boats and Rafts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Kurrajong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Mobiles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Kangaroo Grass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

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Gumleaf Bird Collage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Lemon-scented Grass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Further Inspiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

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Gum Leaf Bird Collage You will need • Cardboard • Dry gum leaves • Stick • PVA glue • Paintbrush

What to do

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Make some cardboard templates in appropriate bird shapes. Our native kookaburras, galahs and wrens, for example, all have distinctive shapes.

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• Gum nuts

The templates can then be used to trace around to transfer the shapes onto thick paper using a lead pencil. This outline can be erased later if you wish.

Select leaves of the appropriate size and shape to use as feathers.

Arrange them to fit into the bird shape and then glue them into position. Glue on a gumnut for eyes and a stick as a branch for the bird to perch on.

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Kookaburra

Galah

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Red Cap Gum Eucalyptus erythrocorys A spectacular small gum native to south-western Western Australia. It is drought tolerant, growing well in sandy or well drained soils in full sun.

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Its flower buds have distinctive bright red square caps which fall off to reveal contrasting vivid yellow blossoms up to 5cm wide. The blossom attracts birds and bees. The flowers are followed by large, woody four-lobed seed pods which stay attached to the tree.

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Gungurru Eucalyptus caesia A drought tolerant, weeping gum tree widely grown as an ornamental plant, but now rare in the wild. It grows up to 5m tall and 4m wide and has beautiful silvery white powder covering its branches.

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It produces large pink, red or white flowers from May to September, then develops silvery bell-shaped gumnuts which remain on the tree for many months.

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